


Ill-Advised and Foolhardy

by Brumeier



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Community: ushobwri, First Kiss, M/M, Mission Related, Science Experiments, Sea Monsters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-27
Updated: 2017-10-27
Packaged: 2019-01-22 16:16:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12485692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier
Summary: Steve is called back to active duty at the same time an unknown creature is attacking vessels at sea. Danny, forced to stay behind, can't help but worry.





	Ill-Advised and Foolhardy

**Author's Note:**

> For Monster Fest: Experiments day at [You Should Be Writing](https://ushobwri.dreamwidth.org/171390.html)

Danny Williams was a first-class detective, as he frequently told Steve. He was smart, he had good instincts, and he knew when he was being fed a line of bullshit.

“It’s classified.”

“Oh, so I suppose you being recalled to duty at the same time something is attacking boats out at sea is a coincidence.”

Steve sighed but continued packing his duffle. “You know I can’t tell you where I’m going.”

Danny leaned in the doorway of Steve’s bedroom, arms crossed. “I would merely appreciate you not treating me like a three year old.”

“Then stop throwing a tantrum like one,” Steve shot back.

Danny stomped back downstairs before he said something truly regrettable. The truth of it was, he wasn’t even all that angry. He was worried. The news had been full of mysterious creature sightings, and footage of yachts and trawlers that had literally been ripped in half. One very shaky video shot on a smart phone had shown a very big, clawed foot as it smashed through the railing and upper deck of some rich family’s expensive boat.

There’d been fifteen deaths so far, and if anyone knew what the creature was they weren’t sharing the information. There’d been wild speculation about giant squids or man-eating sharks until that video surfaced, and now people were talking about dinosaurs and coelacanths. Adding throws-himself-in-front-of-bullets McGarrett into the mix seemed like a very bad idea.

“Come on, Danny.” Steve came down the stairs in his blue Navy fatigues, bag slung over his shoulder, and Danny had never wanted to throw caution to the wind and kiss him more than he did at that moment. “It’s only a couple of days. A week at most. You can handle being in charge that long.”

Of course the idiot thought he was worried about work. “I know I can handle the job, you clueless oaf. I just don’t like the idea of my partner out in the middle of the ocean wrestling with some kind of sea monster.”

Steve got that look on his face, the one with the goofy, kind of surprised grin. “Aww. You gonna miss me, Danno?”

“I was. Just changed my mind.”

Steve clapped him on the shoulder. “I’ll be back before you know it.”

“Try not to get eaten.”

“Aloha, Danny,” Steve said, his eyebrow quirked up, and then he was gone.

*o*o*o*

_Zoologists have studied the creature’s DNA from saliva left on one of the derelict ships, and determined that it’s most closely related to a monitor lizard._

“I heard it’s from the Marshall Islands,” Grace said. She was cuddled up next to Danny on the couch, watching the news. “They did nuclear testing there back in the old days.”

_The United States Navy, The People’s Liberation Army-Navy and the Royal Australian Navy all have ships in the Pacific at the site of the latest attack, working together using drones and sonar technology to locate the creature._

The view of the ships was from above but that didn’t stop Danny from leaning in and staring at the TV, trying to see if Steve was on deck of the aircraft carrier.

“Is that where Uncle Steve is?” Grace asked.

“I think so. Who else are they going to send to take care of a giant lizard monster?”

Danny kept his tone light, but he felt like there was a weight on his chest. The creature had destroyed some pretty sizeable ships, including a commercial fishing vessel. The Navy had big guns on their side, but that was no guarantee of success when the thing could take out the carrier from underneath. And now the Chinese were involved? The whole thing had international incident written all over it.

“If anyone can stop it, Super Steve can.”

Danny huffed out a laugh and kissed the top of Grace’s head. She was probably right. Steve did have a way of prevailing even in the most extreme situations; Danny had witnessed that first-hand more times than he cared to count.

“He’ll be okay,” he said.

“Of course he will,” Grace responded. She cuddled closer to Danny. “Don’t worry, Danno.”

“I’ll try,” Danny promised.

*o*o*o*

“Danny!” Kono called. “Get in here! Quick!”

She and Chin were standing around the computer table, eyes glued to the monitor. Danny set aside the report he was filling out and went to join them.

“What’s up? Something on the Choi case?”

Kono grabbed for his hand. “No.”

_This was the scene two hours ago, as survivors from the_ USS Chegwidden _were rescued by the Royal Australian Navy. There’s no official word yet on the number of casualties. Air support has been dispatched, and efforts to find and destroy the creature will continue._

Danny stared at the monitor and forgot how to breathe. He knew it. He knew something bad would happen.

“What do we know?” he choked out, clutching tightly to Kono’s hand.

“Nothing,” Chin replied grimly. “He wasn’t on the deployment list, but if he went in with a SEAL team he wouldn’t be.”

_Once again, here is the footage captured by the drones at the moment of the attack._

The footage was painfully clear, no way to miss the giant lizard that rose up out of the water and attacked the aircraft carrier like it was a child’s toy. Fighter jets were sent skidding off the flight deck and into the ocean with one swipe of its clawed foot. It was like something out of an old monster movie, except this time the monster wasn’t a guy in a really bad costume. 

“He’ll be okay,” Kono said fervently. “He survives everything, it’s his super power.”

Danny prayed she was right.

*o*o*o*

_Don’t worry. I’m okay._

Just four words, but once they flashed across the screen of Danny’s phone some of the weight lifted off his chest. He wished Steve could’ve called, but confirmation that he was still alive would have to be good enough.

Having him come home would be better, but Danny knew how things would go. It was personal for Steve now. He’d no doubt lost friends during the attack on the _USS Chegwidden_ and he’d be single-mindedly thinking of ways to take that giant lizard down once and for all.

“Do they have to kill it?” Grace asked over dinner. “I mean, maybe the lizard isn’t hurting people on purpose. Maybe it’s scared, or defending itself.”

“That may be the case, monkey, but it’s too big and too dangerous to leave out there. More innocent people will get hurt if they don’t do something.”

“I guess.” Grace pushed food around her plate with her fork. “I just feel bad for it. I mean, it didn’t ask to be that way. The scientists on TV said it was a mutation caused from all the radiation, and that’s our fault. People can’t even live there and the bomb tests were so long ago. It’s not fair.”

Danny sighed. He didn’t disagree. But if it came down to saving some giant lizard or saving Steve, it was going to be Steve every time.

“No, it isn’t fair. There’s no good solution, so they’ll just have to do the best they can with what they have. And the fact is there’s no place to keep a creature that size where it won’t hurt anyone.”

“I know.” Grace looked up at Danny with her big, sad eyes. “Is Uncle Steve coming home soon?”

“I hope so, sweetheart. I really do.”

*o*o*o*

After the disaster with the _USS Chegwidden_ there were no more live feeds being broadcast, but that didn’t stop Danny from keeping abreast of the situation out in the Pacific. He put Toast on the job. Thus far it had only been email correspondence, but he was working up to hacking one of the drones.

“You think there’s more?” Toast asked. His fingers were flying across the keyboard, lines of incomprehensible code scrolling past on the monitor.

“More what?”

“More lizard monsters, dude. Like, if there’s one why not more?”

Danny exchanged a horrified look with Chin, who’d been doing his level best to ignore the highly illegal hacking that was taking place in the middle of Five-0 headquarters. The pothead was right. What if there _were_ more? What if they were dealing with an entirely new species?

Living in the middle of the ocean just got a lot less appealing. And that hadn’t been a very high bar to start with.

“Whoa. What am I looking at here? You seeing this, Jersey?”

Danny wished he wasn’t. Toast had successfully hacked one of the drones and the monitor was broadcasting the feed. It was surreal.

“This is unbelievable,” Chin said, coming to stand beside Danny.

“That’s Steve, isn’t it? Of course it is.”

“That guy is insane,” Toast said appreciatively. 

_That guy_ was scaling the giant lizard, wearing a wet suit with some kind of bag slung across his chest. The creature had cables wrapped around it and leading to the various ships, which were holding it as immobile as possible; it wasn’t as immobile as Danny would’ve like, especially with his partner running around on the lizard’s head.

“What is he doing?” Chin asked.

“Something ill-advised and foolhardy,” Danny replied. His hands were clenched on the back of Toast’s chair and he was pretty sure he was seconds away from having a heart-attack.

The drone got closer and now Danny could see Steve’s face, and his do-or-die expression. He pulled a grappling hook out of the bag, and the next thing Danny knew Steve was swinging toward the giant lizard’s gaping maw with something that looked like an explosive in his hand.

“I can’t watch this,” Danny whispered. But he couldn’t take his eyes off the monitor.

The creature roared, Steve threw his explosive, and then chaos ensued. Danny tried to keep his eyes on Steve but the creature was thrashing, and then the creature was exploding in a gout of flame, blood and flesh.

“Gnarly,” Toast said.

Danny felt like he was going to throw up and he tried to find Steve, but drone was in the wrong position and then the feed dropped out and the monitor went to blue screen.

“Fuck.”

*o*o*o*

“You stupid, inconsiderate, thoughtless asshole!” Danny had patiently waited for Steve to disembark from the plane and walk over to the car before he unleashed his fury. “Why does it always have to be you doing the life-or-death stuff?”

“Nice to see you too,” Steve replied. 

To Danny’s keen eye his partner was clearly exhausted. The skin under his eyes looked bruised and he had a bandage taped over his temple. There was probably more damage hidden by his clothes.

“I saw your little stunt with the grappling hook and the bomb, and no I won’t tell you how. How you’re even still alive is a mystery to me.”

Steve tossed his bag into the backseat of the car. “Great. Can we go now?”

“No, we can’t go. I have one more thing to say to you.” 

Before he could overthink things and chicken out, Danny used Steve’s shirt to yank him closer. He leaned up and kissed Steve. It was just supposed to be a chaste press of lips, a way to let Steve know how he felt, but then Steve kissed back and all the worry from the last few days and the pent-up feelings from the last couple of years came pouring out.

Danny let himself get backed against the car, relishing the feel of Steve pressed up tight against him. It was everything he’d wanted but infinitely better, because it was real, it was happening, and Steve was just as aggressive at kissing as he was at everything else. 

“No more fighting giant lizards,” Danny panted.

“Promise,” Steve murmured against Danny’s neck. “Can we go home now?”

“Five more minutes.” 

Danny pulled Steve in for another kiss, not caring if they ever got home. Sometimes it really paid to do something ill-advised and foolhardy.

**Author's Note:**

>  **AN:** Any similiarities between this fic and the 1998 film version of Godzilla is completely intentional. (Was I the only one who felt bad for the monster at the end of that movie?) Also, the _USS Chegwidden_ was named for my favorite Navy Admiral, AJ Chegwidden from the show _JAG._


End file.
